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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Exciting Pwned news told through iZombie gifs

First off, for the official (actual professional non-gif'd version of this announcement go here!)

I go through phases. Obsessions really. And once I'm done with one, I keep it in my back pocket to take out at a later obsession date. Like with Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. I love that thing. And for a while I was full-on obsessed with it. Then randomly, three years later the obsession came back.

That's not important.

What is important, is that my latest obsession is iZombie. Seriously. That show is fantastic and hilarious and spot on.

And so, without further ado, here's some exciting news about Pwned, as told by iZombie gifs.

Once upon a time I had an idea that I wanted to write a book about gamers. The only problem was that gamers weren't cool yet. And being a nerd definitely wasn't cool yet. But I was both of those things. And therein lay my dilemma. I wanted to write about what I love (gamers and nerds) but didn't think it would sell.

But somehow, that didn't stop me. I wrote the dang book anyway. And Pwned was born. But because I was so sure no one would ever buy a book about gamers (keep in mind I had no crystal ball to tell me one day me and my nerd friends would be the cool kids) I didn't shop it around to agents or publishers, I just self-published that puppy and sent it out into the world.

Much to my surprise, people actually read it. Like, living people who weren't related to me. People who didn't have an obligation to read it! And all of a sudden, it just so happened that nerds became cool (which I'm still not sure how we pulled that off, but go us!).

And then one day at Comic Con, home of my people, I ran into Adam Sidwell, whose publishing house I've been stalking for quite some time. We got to talking and I told him about how I'd brought a copy of my book Pwned to give to Felicia Day. Because you cannot meet Queen Felicia Day and not offer up some part of your soul to her epicness. In this case, Pwned was the part of my soul. So Adam takes a look at the book and asks me to send him the manuscript. And guess what happens after that? Yep. This little self-published nerdfest is going on the road! I mean... not literally... well maybe literally. What I mean is, Pwned is being re-release through Future House Publishing.

This is awesome for many reasons, one of them being that after months of stealthily stalking Future House Publishing, my love for them is all out in the open and we're now partners! I no longer have to lurk or be a giant creeper by perusing their Facebook page at odd hours.

Because I was starting to feel a little... well...

And they were probably starting to feel a little...

And so now, Pwned is back!

"But Shannen," you say. "We've already read Pwned. Why do we care?"

Excellent question, friend! While this is probably more exciting for the people who haven't actually read Pwned because it'll be SO MUCH MORE ACCESSIBLE, it's still at least semi-exciting for you too!

Sometimes, a dev editor will look at your book and say, "This needs to be clarified" or "I bet we could make the story better if this happened". And while these thoughts have always been nagging me before meeting said editors, when it's just you and your characters trying to muscle through a scene that might not be working, it can feel a bit like this.

And then you try to say to your character, "Hey, we can't do that because this scene just isn't working like you think it is."

And you characters then reply with, "I don't care. Write it anyway."

And then you start to question why in the world you're talking to fictional people you made up yourself.

But guess what. Those scenes that I was never all that sure about, are now different. And while the book hasn't changed so much that you won't recognize it, I'm actually very excited about the different things that have been added, changed, and taken out.

So that, random citizen, is why this is exciting even if you've read the book. Although the real reason this is so exciting, is just because Future House Publishing has been nothing but wonderful and they're full to the brim with epic people. And pairing up with them, means big and exciting new things for Pwned.

So stay tuned for things like a release date, a new book cover, info on the sequel PVP, and all the freaking epic stuff we have in store for this book. Because believe me. We have end-game-content sized plans for this thing.